Pernille Skipper (born 10 July 1984) is a former Danish politician. She was a member of the
Folketing
The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands ...
from 2011 to 2022, and was political spokesperson for the
Red–Green Alliance
In politics, a red–green alliance or red–green coalition is an alliance of "red" (often social-democratic or democratic socialist) parties with "green" (often green and/or occasionally agrarian) parties. The alliance is often based on commo ...
from 2016 to 2021, succeeding
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen (born 22 February 1984 in Odense) is a former member of the Danish parliament for the Red-Green Alliance. Schmidt-Nielsen has been referred to as the "new queen of the Red-Green Alliance" by parts of the press.Sjølie, Mar ...
. In 2021 she was replaced by
Mai Villadsen
Mai Minna Villadsen (born 26 December 1991) is a Danish politician who is a member of the Folketing and the political spokesperson of the Red–Green Alliance. Villadsen has been a member of the Folketing since the 2019 Danish general election.
E ...
.
Skipper was active in student politics, being chairman of the
student council
A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...
in high school, and vice chairman at the student council at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
. She has been a member of the Red–Green Alliance since 2001, and was in 2011 elected to the Folketing. Since 2013 she has been seen as the expected successor to Schmidt-Nielsen, and in 2016 she was appointed political spokesperson.
Background
Pernille Skipper was born in
Aalborg
Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...
on 10 July 1984. Her parents are Jørnn Skipper and Henriette von Platen. From 2001 to 2003 she took her secondary education at Aalborghus Gymnasium. During this period, she was involved in student politics, being chairperson of her school's student council, chairperson of the regional chapter of ''Danske Gymnasieelevers Sammenslutning'', the Danish association of gymnasium students, and a member of their national board.
She earned a master's degree in
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
in 2011 from the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
. During her studies, she was vice chair of the student council at the University of Copenhagen from 2006 to 2007, and vice chair of the university's educational strategic council from 2006 to 2008. From 2009 to 2011 she had a student job at
Hillerød
Hillerød () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 35,357 (1 January 2022)
Political career
When she was 15, Skipper was briefly a member of
Venstres Ungdom
Venstres Ungdom''The organisation's name is officially not translated into any other language. Similar rules apply for the name of the mother party Venstre. In Danish, Venstres Ungdom is usually referred to simply as "VU".'' (literally: ''Youth of ...
. She was a member of
Socialist Youth Front
Socialist Youth Front (Danish: Socialistisk UngdomsFront, abbreviated SUF) is a socialist political youth organisation in Denmark, consisting of 1,500 members Vi er de 1523 der skal til stormøde ungdomsfront.dk/ref> distributed between 35 auton ...
, and was part of the leadership from 2004 to 2005. In 2001 she joined the
Red–Green Alliance
In politics, a red–green alliance or red–green coalition is an alliance of "red" (often social-democratic or democratic socialist) parties with "green" (often green and/or occasionally agrarian) parties. The alliance is often based on commo ...
. From 2009 to 2014 she was a member of the Red–Green Alliance's central board and their executive committee.
At the 2011 general election Skipper was elected to the
Folketing
The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands ...
. Since 2011 she has been vice chair of the party's parliamentary group. On 10 December 2013, in her role as spokesperson for justice, she announced that the Red–Green Alliance no longer trusted the
Minister of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
,
Morten Bødskov
Morten Bødskov (born 1 May 1970 in Karup) is a Danish Social Democrats (Denmark), Social Democratic politician, and member of the Folketing, currently serving as the Minister for Business since 2022. He previously served as Minister of Defence ( ...
, leading to his resignation. Prior to this, Bødskov had admitted that he had misinformed Folketing about why a visit to Christiania in 2012 was cancelled. The official explanation was that the Copenhagen police director could not participate, but the real reason was that DSIS warned about a security threat against
Pia Kjærsgaard
Pia Merete Kjærsgaard (; born 23 February 1947) is a Danish politician who was Speaker of the Danish Parliament from 2015 to 2019, and former leader of the Danish People's Party.
She is a co-founder of the Danish People's Party, and led the ...
.
In 2012 she matched
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen (born 22 February 1984 in Odense) is a former member of the Danish parliament for the Red-Green Alliance. Schmidt-Nielsen has been referred to as the "new queen of the Red-Green Alliance" by parts of the press.Sjølie, Mar ...
in an internal ballot, and in 2013 she surpassed her. Starting in 2013, she was named in the media as Schmidt-Nielsen's likely successor as political spokesperson of the Red–Green Alliance. In October 2014, Skipper joined the parliamentary committee that scrutinizes the Danish
intelligence agencies
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives.
Means of informatio ...
.
Prior to the 2015 election, held on 18 June, there was uncertainty as to whether Schmidt-Nielsen could stand for reelection due to the party's "
rotation principle
Rotation, or spin, is the circular movement of an object around a '' central axis''. A two-dimensional rotating object has only one possible central axis and can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. A three-dimensional ...
", depending on when Prime Minister
Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Helle Thorning-Schmidt (; born 14 December 1966) is a Danish retired politician who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015, and Leader of the Social Democrats from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to have held each p ...
announced the election. Skipper was expected to become political spokesperson if Schmidt-Nielsen was not allowed to run, but as the election was announced before the Red–Green Alliance's congress, Schmidt-Nielsen did stand for reelection. In October 2015, Skipper was elected new lead candidate in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
constituency instead of Schmidt-Nielsen, and in May 2016 she was named political spokesperson for the Red–Green Alliance. Following her appointment, she ended her membership of the Socialist Workers Party, a
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
party which is a part of the Red–Green Alliance.
Personal life
Skipper lives in Vesterbro. Since 2013 she has been in a relationship with Oliver Routhe Skov, who works as a journalist at DR. They married in 2015. They have a daughter, who was born on 25 October 2017.